Published at 13th of February 2026 7:15 am

Chapter 1728 Beast Crystals

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The group stood in a tense, heavy silence, watching the feed on the monitor. They waited as the vampires left the facility, exiting one by one with a terrifying, synchronized grace. Nobody spoke until the last of the black vehicles had pulled away from the dam, their headlights disappearing into the distance.

Xin let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. It wasn't that she feared for her life in a direct confrontation, she had confidence in her own strength and that of her team, but she was terrified of the ramifications. A conflict between the Howlers and the Vampire Families wouldn't just be a skirmish; it would be a war that could level cities. It was a path they were not yet ready to walk.

“Hey, MARCUS!” Olivia shouted, her voice echoing through the hollowed-out concrete halls. “They’re gone! You can come crawling out of whatever little hole you’ve been hiding in now!”

While Olivia continued to shout to ensure Marcus could hear her from wherever he had bunkered down, Luzen walked over to Xin. His expression was grim, his eyes fixed on the empty screen.

“Did you hear what that man said at the end?” Luzen asked quietly.

“Of course I did,” Xin replied, her brow furrowing. “Even though we’ve tried our absolute best to keep it a secret, it’s clear they already know that Gary is missing. My real question is... if they know the leader of the Howlers is gone, why haven’t they made a move against us yet?”

She looked at Luzen, her eyes searching his. “You’re the expert vampire-hater here. Do you have any idea what kind of game they’re playing?”

Luzen wanted to say he did. In his mind, vampires were opportunistic predators who pounced at the first sign of weakness. If Gary was gone, the Howlers were vulnerable, so why waste the opportunity to dismantle them?

The only thing he could think of was a shift in high-level politics. “It’s possible that some of the vampires, particularly the King, don’t actually want a full-scale war right now. But that peace might only last until they learn that the Lupus pack has been absorbed into the Howlers. Once they realize how much our numbers have grown, they might stop being so patient.”

Luzen shook his head. “The vampires are never easy to read. Who knows what they are thinking in those ancient heads of theirs.”

At that moment, Marcus returned, walking back into the console room alongside Olivia. He looked slightly disheveled but unharmed.

“What I want to know is, what was that explosion earlier?” Olivia asked, turning toward Luzen. “Can all of the vampires do that? Just flick their fingers and blow things up?”

“No,” Luzen answered. “If you remember, the man introduced himself as being from the Fourth Family. Based on the way the others deferred to him, he’s likely a Knight, one of their higher-ranking warriors. Each family within the vampires has a unique set of inherited powers. I haven’t gone against them all, so I don’t know the full list, but it’s these blood-line abilities that make them so dangerous.”

“Unique powers... I guess like what Marcus has,” Xin noted. She had heard from the others that Marcus was capable of channeling lightning, a feat he could perform even though he wasn't an Altered.

“Right. When I fought against one of them before, something strange was happening to me as well,” Marcus added, his voice low. “I can understand why, if you can avoid it, it’s best to stay out of a fight with the vampires.”

Marcus tensed his body as he spoke. Every fiber of his being wanted to do the opposite, to hunt down every last one of them for what they had done to his people, but he knew that, for now, it was an impossible task.

“I do have some good news, though,” Marcus said, changing the subject to distract himself from the rage. “It seems the vampires either didn’t care about the loot or they never found the hidden armory located deeper in the dam. It ended up being my hiding spot, so I know for sure it’s untouched. Why don’t we see what we can bring back?”

The group followed Marcus down through a series of various service tunnels. Along the way, they continued to pass more members of the Dark Guild who had been slaughtered. It was chilling to see the efficiency of the attack; despite the base being a literal maze of concrete and steel, the vampires had managed to find and eliminate every single person.

Eventually, they came to a solid, reinforced steel door that required a handprint scan to gain access.

“I guess they didn’t smell anyone on the other side, so they didn’t even bother trying to force this door,” Marcus muttered as he pressed his palm against the scanner.

The locks disengaged with a heavy thud. When the doors slid open, the group ventured inside and was genuinely surprised by what they found.

The room wasn't just a locker for weapons. There were a number of ornaments that looked like simple decorations but radiated a faint magical hum. There were important-looking paintings and rare jewels that looked like they could be sold for a very pretty penny on the black market.

Then, there was what they were truly looking for: beast gear.

The amount was limited, however. As they began picking up the various pieces, it became clear that the gear in this room was no better than what they already had. Compared to the high-tier bow Luzen carried, most of it was fairly standard.

“This is still a great find,” Xin said, inspecting a set of reinforced chest plates. “Our regular members can use this. It’ll be much more effective as Anti-Altered equipment than the standard tactical gear they have now.”

“It’s a shame about these crystals, though,” Olivia commented, pointing toward a crate in the corner. “There’s a large number of them, and they seem to be high-tier. Definitely not like the scraps we get from that Tier Four city.”

The Howlers were secretly partnered with a Tier Four city that supplied them with beast crystals. Gary had been forcing the newer Werewolves to consume those crystals to rapidly increase their strength, trying to get them to a level where they could match the power of the veteran Lupus group.

“Right. Stuff like this... it would have been perfect to give to NIRV,” Xin said with a sigh. “They could have turned these into high-grade Altered solutions, but since the facilities have practically stopped production, we're stuck.”

“There’s also another use for beast crystals,” Marcus added. “They can be forged into incredible beast gear, weapons and armor that far surpass this basic stuff. The problem is, almost no one knows the secret of how to forge it anymore. And even if they did, I doubt they’d be skilled enough to handle high-tier crystals like these. But we should take everything we can. Just in case.”

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